岩船寺

Gansenji Temple is located in the quiet mountain city of Kizugawa, Kyoto. Embraced on all sides by mountain forest, the temple grounds burst into bloom in the spring and summer with camellias, plum blossoms, cherry blossoms, hydrangeas, and water lilies This has earned the temple the nickname “Temple of Flowers.” It is particularly well-known for its hydrangeas of which there are over thirty varieties and five thousand plants. The connection to hydrangeas is so deep that a hydrangea symbol is carved into the sign at the temple gate. Because the base of the temple’s Three-storied Pagoda, an Important Cultural Property, is located at the foot of a hill, its top can be viewed up close from the hilltop. The temple’s principal deity, a nearly 3-meter tall wooden statue of Amida Nyorai, is thought to be the oldest of its kind.